Banana papad(KeLe happoLu)

(In the above picture, the left one is raw papad and the right ones are deep fried ones)

I hope my readers don’t get bored of my sun dried item series, because I have few more coming after this :).? I took advantage(or disadvantage) of my parents stay here to learn these all. So I can’t wait till I post them all here.

Now coming to keLe(banana) happoLu(papad). From my childhood, I have loved eating these. During my aayi’s childhood and college days, she had made these innumerable times. But down the line, somehow she stopped making these. Still we had a constant supply of these at home all the time. These taste great when deep fried or when fried on charcoal(kenDa). In my aayi’s words, “the poha particles puff up like mothi(pearls) when these are deep fried”. Though she didn’t make these papads at home, she served the papad dough(hapLa peet) as side dish every now and then.

At our place, we get a special kind of cooking bananas that we call as anbaLi or phodi keli(used to make phodis). But any kind of cooking bananas can be used for this, by cooking banana, I mean the ones which are not eaten raw. These are usually available in vegetable isle in supermarkets. We used the ones that we bought from Indian store here.

When we were making these, hubby had no clue about all the excitement my aayi and I were showing. He said, “I don’t think I am going to like to eat those”.? We didn’t say anything, we knew once he tastes them, he will never forget. We had two small bananas, from which we got just 10 papads. Do I need to say they were instant hits once we deep fried them? They tasted just out of the world, spicy, very light and crunchy and had a asafoetida flavor to them. They were dried instantly and shrink considerably in size when dried.

Method:
Keep the poha under sun for some time so that it becomes slightly crisp (this step is only to help grinding poha easily, we spread the poha on a hot tava for a short time to make it slightly crisp). Powder it coarsely.
Cook bananas(with the skin) in steam, ie, in cooker, take the bananas in a vessel or plate and add very little water(may be 1 or 2 tbl spns) and cook.

Take out the bananas and peel the skin off the bananas, when they are still hot, the skin comes off very easily.

Grease a mixer/blender vessel with a little oil and grind the hot bananas with chili powder, salt, asafoetida, without adding water.
Take out the paste, apply a little coconut oil to hands and make small balls from the mixture.

Wrap a plastic paper or aluminum foil to both rolling pin and rolling table (lat paLe). Roll the balls into round thin papads, apply as much poha powder as needed to help rolling.

Carefully take them off the paper and spread them on a sheet or a cloth under hot sun.

When the papads are dried completely and have become crisp, cool them to room temperature and store in air tight container. While serving, deep fry the papads and enjoy.

PS: Be very careful while grinding bananas. These bananas are very hard to grind and they make a sticky paste. So cut them in to small pieces before grinding. When they cool down, they become hard and you cannot grind them. Mixer/grinder gets stuck most of the time. I had thought my new Sumeet mixer had burned out when we were grinding this, but luckily it survived :).

The ready dough(cooked banana+chili powder+salt+asafoetida) can also be served as a side dish with rice and any dal/gravy.

gowri

priya

the previous website design was very good a unique this looks normal and existing one.plese use the previous out it was gracefull
Shilpa: Priya, I have changed the template to solve some problems in the old one. This new look is temperory and only remain until I solve the issues.

Vijaya

I think the series is appropriate for summer. These sun dried items were a method of storing the excess produce for winter months when vegetables would not be available or affordable for many people. Produce was pickled, salted or sundried as papads. Stuff like jackfruit, pacch ponosu or mango was abundant.
I think we are used to getting fresh produce all the time now even if it is flown across the world and environmentally bad. This was not the case in villages where people ate what they grew in their farms and gardens. so we forget the principles of certain cooking methods. Eating local was the earliest and most suitable idea even if it meant eating food stored during the summer months.

Never honey, will never get bored of this. This is so vital and important and the fact that you share it with the world is what makes it special. You are recording something here that will live on for a very long time that is why the work of bloggers, especially food bloggers like yourself is valued.

saraswathi

Charmaine

Sorry to ask, I’m new here. I would love to try the recipe, but please could you tell me what asafoetida and coarse powder of poha/avalakki is?

Thanks
Charmaine

Shilpa: Charmaine, fattened rice is called poha or avalakki. You can buy it from any Indian store. For this recipe, this flattened rice(which is kind of rice flakes) if powdered coarsely. You can read more about asafoetida at wiki. This has a very strong smell and used in many Indian dishes. This is available in the form of powder and small stones. You can easily find it in any Indian store. Hope this helps

Aruna Pai

Shilpa ….Keep posting sundried items, i guess all of us will be happy to see the authentic konkani recipes getting posted. I have eaten this kale happolo but never tried or bought it. I liked your idea of coating the rolling pin with the foil. Good pictures and step by step illustration too. Thanks

Sandhya

I want to try all the sundried items. I remm having papad rice at some mangalorean home way back when i was small. It was amazing with lot of papad varities over rice and sprinkled with raw onion.. It was amazing!! Anways, I want to try all your sundried items and please keep them coming.. I am really looking forward to it.
Also : Just want to know if you have tried microwaving the same . Does it come out well?
Thanks
Sandhya

Shilpa: Sandhya, I have microwaved urad papad and they came out well. But I don’t think microwaving will work for these, because these are slightly thicker. You can directly fry them on stove top, which I do for most of the papads.

nirupama

shilpa,
I tried them shilpa, i steamed the bananas, and with the help of prestige food processor, i ground it to a smooth paste, but forgot about the poha powder. But used half of the paste to make papads,i did not roll them , but pressed them with my palm on the back of a palin plate, sundiredthem, but the children who were playing in the terrace had finished them off before i could fry them.I have 2 3 doubts, should we use any special banana? should we make it so thin?
I used the rest of the paste to make parathas like alu paratha and they were divine.
We make podi with steamed banana. We make a powder of roasted toor dall, in oil , red chillies and hing and mix with the steamed ones, pl try they taste great and willbe helpful for ur urgent cooking. Thanks shilpa

Shilpa: You can use plantains (the ones used for cooking). Yes, they should be thin like any other papad.